Still love Tottenham under the light.
-
The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...
Legend Jimmy Greaves
- Thread starter B-0-Sspurs
- Start date
Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports
It's criminal that Greaves and Nicholson doesn't have statues already
Probably too expensive.
I’d urge anyone to watch the video clip of Arthur Rowe saying what Tottenham means to him.
You are quite right with your views. If am allowed I remove Hoddle and add Rowe.
It takes a moment to reflect & then you sort of think “Jimmy Greaves.....” & then that sense of “bloody hell Jimmy Greaves” replaces everything else. One man who is, in every sense, a Legend.
We have been so blessed over so many years to have some real quality at Spurs.
Last edited:
Greaves must be celebrated for his humanity and candour as well as his goals
The tattered copy of This One’s On Me was picked up in a second-hand bookshop. It was a memoir from 1979 by a footballer I had never seen play.
An unpromising start, then, but I read the first line – “My name is Jimmy G. I am a professional footballer and I am an alcoholic” — and I did not stop until the end of a work of such searing honesty that I did not know it was possible, least of all from a famous sportsman.
The players’ stories I had read usually went along very conventional lines — “played well, earned transfer, dream came true etc” — so to read Jimmy Greaves write about taking hold of a razor blade and holding it against his wrists was truly shocking.
Disturbing, too, as he recounted how he would stand at the back of railway platforms in case he got the sudden urge to run forward and jump in front of a train, terrified that he might copy Hughie Gallacher, the Scottish striker to whom he had frequently been compared for brilliance and then for boozing. For a time, Greaves became obsessed at the idea that he might follow Gallacher to a suicidal death.
Then there was the tormenting question Greaves had asked himself so many times about why he started drinking. Was it the terrible loss, when Greaves was just 19, of Jimmy Jr, his first born, at just four months old? The pressure of big-time football? Being dumped by Tottenham Hotspur, prompting a downward spiral and premature retirement and, finally, spells in the “mental hospitals” of the day?
“You never recover from alcoholism. Unfortunately it never becomes a ‘wasm’,” Greaves explained in a story that was powerfully told. All of this in the first chapter before he had even begun to reflect on how he came to be such a fêted sportsman in the first place.
I was gripped by a tale which was all the more remarkable for how it clashed with the playful image of Greaves that I had picked up from the telly. For millions of us too young to see him play, he was not really a footballer so much as an entertainer; the funny Eric Morecambe to Ian St John’s straight Ernie Wise on the hugely popular Saint and Greavsie show on a Saturday.
From self-destruct and despair to this jolly figure on the screen via goalscoring legend all made for a truly remarkable life — and certainly one to celebrate as, next Thursday, Greaves turns 80. The birthday will be marked by a fine documentary made by BT Sport though for all its merits, I am really not sure it could come close to the evangelical power of that book.
Recently I wrote about Tony Adams and how he had done so much to advance the conversation around addiction and mental health; Greaves was pushing the message back in the Seventies when he also appeared in a documentary, Just for Today, alongside the woman to whom he owes so much, wife Irene.
“All I can do is hope that over the rest of my life I can make it up to her, the children and other people, to show that people who are lost in the world through one problem or another, and it needn’t be alcohol, that you can overcome it,” Greaves explained.
And that still feels the greatest thing about his story, even more than the hundreds of goals that he scored not just at a phenomenal rate but with a sleek style — namely, the transformative redemption and the generous humanity that shone through as he exposed his struggles and all his vulnerabilities with a candour that few would dare.
Seemingly born to score, Greaves began as a prolific striker for Chelsea, a slender, quick-footed forward who glided through defences, finishing chances with both feet, though mostly his favoured left. He scored 132 goals in 169 league games even in an average team.
Ambitious for more, the intertwining of triumph and tragedy in his life was all there in 1961 as he wrestled with a move to AC Milan and seductive, life-changing riches. Signing was the exact minute that he reckons he doomed himself to using drink to forget his problems.
It turned out to be a nightmare move for a young man who had already lost one child, was expecting another and needed family support not an alien world. It was a sign of things to come when Greaves missed the flight to Italy for his unveiling by drinking two bottles of champagne in departures with a reporter and turning up six hours late at the wrong airport in Milan; drunk, too, after more in-flight cocktails.
He could barely wait to return to England; to Tottenham who had just won the Double. With Greaves arriving with a hat-trick on his way to 220 league goals in 321 games for Spurs, he helped them to the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1963, the first British team to win a major European honour, as well as two FA Cups.
His 44 England goals in 57 games were scored at a faster rate than any of his rivals — one per 117 minutes, which is better than Gary Lineker, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney or Bobby Charlton — though that feat was overshadowed by the hepatitis and then gashed shin which curtailed his World Cup in 1966.
That England’s triumph would be his “saddest day in football” was something else to try to forget with a drink, or six. One of the most striking images of that glorious day is the England bench embracing each other in the moment of victory and Greaves staring out with a haunted look which he had to try to mask amid celebrations. Geoff Hurst got the hat-trick and eventually the knighthood; Greaves the hollow disappointment.
His team-mates felt for him. Greaves has always been popular for his wit and warmth, though not necessarily among managers whom he could test with an unconventionally relaxed approach in training or a sharp mind that was always cracking one-liners or asking challenging questions.
They were among his great assets in the TV career that would give him as much pride as playing; not least because he had learnt to truly appreciate the pleasures in life through the Alcoholics Anonymous motto of taking a day, or a minute, at a time through years of sobriety.
It is worth catching that film next week though Greaves’ himself largely features in old footage, given that he was severely disabled by a stroke in 2015. On the occasion of his 80th, I will certainly give thanks to the man who gave me my first words in print.
Greaves was editor of the letters page in Shoot magazine when, after Danny, his son, signed for Cambridge United, I wrote to ask optimistically: “Might he turn out as prolific as his old man?”
Not much chance of that. English football may never have seen a finisher to match Greaves, though as one newspaper campaigns for him to receive a knighthood, recognition would only be partly for a captivating ability to put the ball in the net.
Sign up for Jimmy:
www.change.org
Sign the Petition
Join Sportsmail's campaign to get Jimmy Greaves on the Honours list #GongForGreavsie
www.change.org
Greaves must be celebrated for his humanity and candour as well as his goals
The tattered copy of This One’s On Me was picked up in a second-hand bookshop. It was a memoir from 1979 by a footballer I had never seen play.
An unpromising start, then, but I read the first line – “My name is Jimmy G. I am a professional footballer and I am an alcoholic” — and I did not stop until the end of a work of such searing honesty that I did not know it was possible, least of all from a famous sportsman.
The players’ stories I had read usually went along very conventional lines — “played well, earned transfer, dream came true etc” — so to read Jimmy Greaves write about taking hold of a razor blade and holding it against his wrists was truly shocking.
Disturbing, too, as he recounted how he would stand at the back of railway platforms in case he got the sudden urge to run forward and jump in front of a train, terrified that he might copy Hughie Gallacher, the Scottish striker to whom he had frequently been compared for brilliance and then for boozing. For a time, Greaves became obsessed at the idea that he might follow Gallacher to a suicidal death.
Then there was the tormenting question Greaves had asked himself so many times about why he started drinking. Was it the terrible loss, when Greaves was just 19, of Jimmy Jr, his first born, at just four months old? The pressure of big-time football? Being dumped by Tottenham Hotspur, prompting a downward spiral and premature retirement and, finally, spells in the “mental hospitals” of the day?
“You never recover from alcoholism. Unfortunately it never becomes a ‘wasm’,” Greaves explained in a story that was powerfully told. All of this in the first chapter before he had even begun to reflect on how he came to be such a fêted sportsman in the first place.
I was gripped by a tale which was all the more remarkable for how it clashed with the playful image of Greaves that I had picked up from the telly. For millions of us too young to see him play, he was not really a footballer so much as an entertainer; the funny Eric Morecambe to Ian St John’s straight Ernie Wise on the hugely popular Saint and Greavsie show on a Saturday.
From self-destruct and despair to this jolly figure on the screen via goalscoring legend all made for a truly remarkable life — and certainly one to celebrate as, next Thursday, Greaves turns 80. The birthday will be marked by a fine documentary made by BT Sport though for all its merits, I am really not sure it could come close to the evangelical power of that book.
Recently I wrote about Tony Adams and how he had done so much to advance the conversation around addiction and mental health; Greaves was pushing the message back in the Seventies when he also appeared in a documentary, Just for Today, alongside the woman to whom he owes so much, wife Irene.
“All I can do is hope that over the rest of my life I can make it up to her, the children and other people, to show that people who are lost in the world through one problem or another, and it needn’t be alcohol, that you can overcome it,” Greaves explained.
And that still feels the greatest thing about his story, even more than the hundreds of goals that he scored not just at a phenomenal rate but with a sleek style — namely, the transformative redemption and the generous humanity that shone through as he exposed his struggles and all his vulnerabilities with a candour that few would dare.
Seemingly born to score, Greaves began as a prolific striker for Chelsea, a slender, quick-footed forward who glided through defences, finishing chances with both feet, though mostly his favoured left. He scored 132 goals in 169 league games even in an average team.
Ambitious for more, the intertwining of triumph and tragedy in his life was all there in 1961 as he wrestled with a move to AC Milan and seductive, life-changing riches. Signing was the exact minute that he reckons he doomed himself to using drink to forget his problems.
It turned out to be a nightmare move for a young man who had already lost one child, was expecting another and needed family support not an alien world. It was a sign of things to come when Greaves missed the flight to Italy for his unveiling by drinking two bottles of champagne in departures with a reporter and turning up six hours late at the wrong airport in Milan; drunk, too, after more in-flight cocktails.
He could barely wait to return to England; to Tottenham who had just won the Double. With Greaves arriving with a hat-trick on his way to 220 league goals in 321 games for Spurs, he helped them to the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1963, the first British team to win a major European honour, as well as two FA Cups.
His 44 England goals in 57 games were scored at a faster rate than any of his rivals — one per 117 minutes, which is better than Gary Lineker, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney or Bobby Charlton — though that feat was overshadowed by the hepatitis and then gashed shin which curtailed his World Cup in 1966.
That England’s triumph would be his “saddest day in football” was something else to try to forget with a drink, or six. One of the most striking images of that glorious day is the England bench embracing each other in the moment of victory and Greaves staring out with a haunted look which he had to try to mask amid celebrations. Geoff Hurst got the hat-trick and eventually the knighthood; Greaves the hollow disappointment.
His team-mates felt for him. Greaves has always been popular for his wit and warmth, though not necessarily among managers whom he could test with an unconventionally relaxed approach in training or a sharp mind that was always cracking one-liners or asking challenging questions.
They were among his great assets in the TV career that would give him as much pride as playing; not least because he had learnt to truly appreciate the pleasures in life through the Alcoholics Anonymous motto of taking a day, or a minute, at a time through years of sobriety.
It is worth catching that film next week though Greaves’ himself largely features in old footage, given that he was severely disabled by a stroke in 2015. On the occasion of his 80th, I will certainly give thanks to the man who gave me my first words in print.
Greaves was editor of the letters page in Shoot magazine when, after Danny, his son, signed for Cambridge United, I wrote to ask optimistically: “Might he turn out as prolific as his old man?”
Not much chance of that. English football may never have seen a finisher to match Greaves, though as one newspaper campaigns for him to receive a knighthood, recognition would only be partly for a captivating ability to put the ball in the net.
Whilst recognising his own problems he also helped others
Cliff Jones was hitting the bottle hard at one stage and Greavsie has words with him
Sign up for Jimmy:
Sign the Petition
Join Sportsmail's campaign to get Jimmy Greaves on the Honours list #GongForGreavsie
He has no honour at all?? Not even the MBE????
For fuck's sake!
Yet David Jason has a knighthood...
Iain Duncan Smith is a Spurs supporter
His one redeeming feature!
Thanks for highlighting. Have signed and donated. He was a huge part of me falling in love with the game in the 80s/90s and his record is unbelievable. England’s finest without a doubt. We’d have beaten WG 12-2 if he’d been playing in 1966.
Anyone else watching the Jimmy Greaves film on BT? What an amazing career he had.
Anyone going tomorrow? Try and get a Happy Birthday on the go for him, I'm sure he'd appreciate it. Absolute legend of the lilywhite shirt from what I can see watching this.
Anyone going tomorrow? Try and get a Happy Birthday on the go for him, I'm sure he'd appreciate it. Absolute legend of the lilywhite shirt from what I can see watching this.
Check the overnight TV schedule - I'll bet BT Sport is repeating it later/over the next few days.
Yep. Good programme, I thought. Quite a few goals in there that I’d not seen before.
Still can’t get over the fact that he and his teammates used to do exactly what I do now after the game,, go straight into the Bell & Hare for a few.
Last edited: